UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize

Jury 2011

Members of the Jury of the UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize 2011

Ms Alexandra Föderl-Schmid

Editor-in Chief, Der Standard (Austria)Alexandra Föderl-Schmid is editor-in-chief of the Austrian daily Der Standard since July 2007. The first woman to have held such a post, she previously reported extensively on European issues, including the wars in former Yugoslavia and EU enlargement. She is a graduate of the Wels Journalism School and gained her master’s degree at the University of Salzburg followed by a Doctorate in Communication Studies.

Mr Bulbul Monjurul Ahsan

CEO and Editor-in-Chief, Boishakhai Television (Bangladesh)Monjurul Ahsan Bulbul is the Editor-in-Chief & Chief Executive Officer of Boishakhi Television. His previous experiences include working for the country’s oldest newspaper - the Daily Sangbad, the Daily Jugantor, Ekushey Teleision, and ATN Bangla, the country’s first satellite television channel. Over his three decades as a journalist, Bulbul has earned a number of awards and honors. Presently he is an Executive Board member of the International Press Institute, member of the Board of Directors of the Open University of Bangladesh, Director of the Press Institute of Bangladesh, and a member of the Dhaka University SENATE. He is also an Executive Director of Media Watch (a Bangladeshi organisation defending press freedom) and a part time teacher in the Department of Mass Communication & Journalism at Dhaka University.

Mr Miklos Haraszti

Former OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (Hungary)Mr Haraszti is a writer, journalist, human rights advocate and university professor. He was appointed the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media effective from 10 March 2004. In 1976 he co-founded the Hungarian Democratic Opposition Movement and in 1980 he became editor of the samizdat periodical Beszélő. In 1989, Haraszti participated in the "roundtable" negotiations on transition to free elections. After being member of the Hungarian Parliament from 1990–1994 he moved on to lecture on democratization and media politics at numerous universities. Haraszti's books include "A Worker in a Worker's State" and "The Velvet Prison", both of which have been translated into several languages.

Mr Ognian Zlatev

Managing Director of the Media Development Center (Bulgaria)Ognian Zlatev is currently Managing Director of the Media Development Center in Bulgaria. After his graduate studies at Sofia University, he attained additional qualifications, among others, for political communications, media relations, journalism and media development. Ognian Zlatev is a founding member of the South-East European Network for Professionalization of the Media (SEENPM) where he was president from 2002 to 2004. He is also a member of the board of the South-East European Media Organization (SEEMO). Furthermore Zlatev works as external communications and public outreach consultant for the World Bank Office in Bulgaria, as a Media expert for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and has also served as a media expert for UNESCO.

Mr Daniel Santoro

Editor de la Sección “El País”, Diario Clarín (Argentina)Mr Santorois the national political editor at Clarin, Argentina's largest newspaper, and has conducted extensive investigations into government corruption, national security matters, and international drug trafficking. Santoro was awarded the 1995 King of Spain International Journalism Award for his "outstanding contribution" to journalism. In addition to his work at Clarin, Santoro teaches investigative journalism at the Universidad de Belgrano in Buenos Aires and has also conducted classes at the Fundacion para un Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano, run by Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia-Marquez in Colombia. In 2000, Santoro published a journalism textbook, Puro Periodismo (Pure Journalism).

Mr Steven Gan

Editor-in-Chief, Malaysiakini.com (Malaysia)Mr Gan is the editor-in-chief of Malaysiakini.com which he co-founded in 1999. Malaysiakini.com is the only full-time independent newspaper in Malaysia which exists only on the Internet. Because of its critical reporting of the ruling government, Malaysiakini.com has continuously been the target of official harassments. Despite this, Malaysiakini.com has continued to thrive with more than 100, 000 readers daily and to do so on a subscription-based business model, a rarity in the newspaper industry. Gan was the recipient of Committee to Protect Journalists International Press Freedom Award in 2000.

Ms Guiliana Sgrena

Reporter, Envoyée spéciale, Il Manifesto (Italy)Ms Sgrena is a journalist who works for the Italian newspaper Il Manifesto and the German weekly Die Zeit. In 1988, she joined Il Manifesto and, as a war correspondent, has since covered situations such as the unrest in Algeria, as well as the Somalian and the Afghanistan conflicts. As a campaigner for women's rights, she has been particularly concerned with the conditions of women in Islam societies. During her travels, she reported extensively on topics regarding the Horn of Africa, the Maghreb and the Middle East. On 4 February 2005, whilst working in Iraq, she was kidnapped by insurgents and held hostage for one month.

Ms Serkalem Fasil

Publisher and Deputy Editor, Menilik Newspaper (Ethiopia)Ms Fasil is a journalist and former co-publisher of the weekly newspapers Asqual, Menilik, and Satenaw which were shut down after her arrest. Indeed, in November 2005, Fasil was arrested and charged with “genocide”, “treason” and “outrages against the constitution” along with thirteen other editors and reporters of independent and privately-owned newspapers. Her arrest came after her newspapers published articles critical of the Ethiopian government's actions during the May 2005 parliamentary elections. Pregnant when arrested, she gave birth to her son in prison in June 2006. After a year of legal proceedings, the federal high court in Addis Ababa acquitted her of all charges on 9 April 2007. Nevertheless, in September 2007 the Information ministry turned down her applications to register a new weekly newspaper, Habesha.

Ms Marielos Monzon

Columnist, Prensa Libre (Guatemala)Ms Monzon is a columnist for the daily Prensa Libre in Guatemala City, Guatemala, and is known for her commitment to reporting on human rights violations in her country. She began her journalism career at Radio Sonora in 1997. Despite years of threats on her life, she continues to report on the bloody aftermath of a 36-year civil war both in her newspaper column and until recently as co-host of a radio programme, Punto de Encuentro (Meeting Point). In addition to her journalism career, Monzon consults with international non-governmental organizations that work in Guatemala on human rights, democracy and youth issues. In 2003 she received the Courage of Journalism Award by the International Women Media Foundation and in 2005 she received the Human Rights Journalism Award by Amnisty International.

Mr Ramzi E.Khoury

President, PINA - Television Production Company, President, Strategy Falcons Ltd (UAE)Mr Khoury is a strategic communications consultant, journalist and columnist. He is the CEO of Strategy Falcons LLC, an Arab strategic communications company based in Dubai. He also currently serves as a Senior Arab Region Adviser of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. With PINA, he produces and directs television films and programs. Khoury is also an adviser to several Arab publications and satellite channels. He was elected in 2002 as Secretary General of the Arab Media Organization, the union of private sector satellite stations. He also managed the campaign of Toujan Feisal, the first woman to be elected to Jordan's lower house of parliament. He has held the position of Editor-in-Chief of the Jordan-based English newspaper, The Arab Daily and AlBawaba.com. Prior to that, he launched Abed Rabbo, the first political satire newspaper in Jordan, which was shut down for its harsh criticism of the government. He then took on the task of liberalizing the country's English-language daily, Jordan Times.

Ms Raghida Dergham

Al Hayat Bureau Chief in New York (Lebanon)Ms Dergham is a Columnist and Senior Diplomatic Correspondent for the London-based Al Hayat, the leading independent Arabic daily, since 1989. Political Analyst for NBC, MSNBC and the Arab satellite LBC for eight years. Ms Dergham addressed UN General Assembly on the World Press Freedom Day in her capacity as President of The United Nations Correspondents Association for 1997 and she served on the Board of the International Women's Media Foundation. She is a member of the International Media Council of the World Economic Forum. A Lebanese-born American citizen, Dr. Dergham is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an Honorary Fellow at The Foreign Policy Association. UN based with assignments worldwide that have included The Madrid Middle East Peace Conference; Islamic Summits; Nonaligned Summits; The Casablanca Economic Summit; The Denver Summit of Eight and several US-Soviet Summits. She has accompanied UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Ban Ki Moon on tours of the Middle East.

Ms Diana Senghor

Director-General-West Africa Panos Institute (Senegal)Diane Senghor has been the Director of the Panos Institute of West Africa, an independent international institution, and a member of the Panos Institute Network, based in Dakar. Previously, she was the founder and director of the West Africa Program of the Panos Institute in Paris. Diana Senghor has also been Editor-in-Chief of a number of West African magazines, such as Family and Development, and Living in Another Way, as well as an Assistant in Anthropology at the Cheik Anta Diop University in Dakar. Diana Senghor holds a Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Paris I (Pantheon - Sorbonne), and is the author of numerous articles, as well as the coordinator of different publications.